R25: Rochelle's 25 fabulous years

ADELAIDE: Peter Burdon spoke to Richard Laidlaw about a life in the limelight and the wild ride that has been the fabulous Rochelle, celebrating 25 years on the stage.

Your humble correspondent has known Rochelle for her entire life on the stage. He’s sure he was there twenty five years ago or so when a bombshell in a red wig stormed the stage at the Mars Bar. “I’d been skating professionally for some time,” Richard explains, “and I’d just finished an Australian tour with an ice show and had come home for a break while I worked out what I was going to do next. One day the phone went and it was Tony Balzan, who was choreographing the drag shows at the Mars Bar at the time. He said he needed another girl, and I thought, ‘Why not?’ I thought it’d be a bit of fun and I was sure there’d be a drink or two in it, so I popped on a wig and Rochelle was born. If anyone had told me she’d still be treading the boards twenty five years later I would have laughed at them.”

But tread the boards she still does. Over the years Rochelle has carved out a reputation for fantastically produced shows and wild excess that stretches the length and breadth of the land, and has had more than a few whirls off-shore as well. “I didn’t have the slightest idea how long-lived Rochelle would be,” Richard admits, “I remember one night early on I was standing at the bar talking to Madame Josephine and I asked her how long she’s been in heels, and she said ‘sixteen years’. It sounded like a lifetime! And I never thought I’d be at it after that long. I mean, I was still skating and I was thinking about starting my own talent agency, but then I went off overseas again and when I returned, Lila Montgomery was running the shows and she asked me to come back. And that was how it went for quite a while. On again, off again, whenever I’d be away. And before you know it, it’s twenty five years. But it’s flown by. I think it’s because I’ve always been doing something different.”

And what a variety there has been. From old wigs and trashy costumes to lavish gowns and feathers, Rochelle has done the lot. “Rochelle was game for anything,” is the laughing reply, “I could skate, of course, so I think rollers skates were in there fairly early on, but I still remember a show at Armstrong’s Tavern when Don Storen, in one of his flights of fancy, actually had an ice floor put in the venue and we did a drag show on ice! Then we went to Mars when Flamingos opened across the road on Gouger Street. Or was it Park Avenue? It’s all a bit of a blur! There was a polite civil war going on at one stage, but that didn’t stop me doing shows in both venues at once. The troupe was called The Pleasure Sluts, and we did four shows a night for a couple of years!”

Few people realise the amount of work that goes into the creation of a larger than life persona like Rochelle. “Thank God I work in the entertainment business,” Richard says with a chuckle, “at least you get used to it, but most people have no idea what a commitment it is. You might start with cheap and nasty wigs (except for a laugh, of course), but when you realise you’ll have to buy a new one every month you soon learn. And costumes. They need to be built like tanks to stand the beating they get. And if you don’t maintain them they’re sure to give out in the most embarrassing place at the worst possible time! And the rehearsal! If you think ‘front-step, back-step one-two-three’ will put on a twenty minute show, you’re way wrong. And these days there’s a real pressure to do it bigger and better than it ever was before.”

The quality of these shows has certainly lifted over the years. “Back in the eighties there was nothing really classy in Adelaide. Melbourne had Pokies, which produced shows as good as you’d get anywhere. And Sydney had Dawn O’Donnell’s shows, but in Adelaide we were still lip synching to Shirley Bassey and Cher. Although we did do it pretty well! We had a lot of fun, and many of the people from those days have gone on to become the leading lights in drag across Australia, people like Yana Michelle and Zoe Knox, we were all in the same shows. It’s extraordinary how a lot of the people from Adelaide in those days have gone on to be leaders across Australia.”

And leadership is another thing that’s given Richard a great deal of pleasure. “I love people, and spotting talent, and nurturing it, and mentoring it, is what I do for a living. That’s often behind the scenes, but it doesn’t stop when you’re in the public eye as a personality like Rochelle. I get young people coming up to me wondering if something like this mad drag lifestyle might be for them. Or having a chat with some frightened little first-timer at the bar. They can talk freely to a huge, totally ‘other’ personality like Rochelle. And I’m happy to help them as well as I can. Tony [Tony Carpenter, aka the glamorous Fifi] and I both try to act as mentors, and I’ve taken to thinking of myself as a bit of a signpost, pointing the way, if you like. Sometimes it means identifying talent and fostering it, but it’s also important to remember that you can’t do it all yourself, and you’ve got to be responsible. So I’ve got a great relationship with the folks at Second Storey, for instance, which is a great help to young gay people.”

“I think drag has a great future,” Richard says, “but it’s going to have to work hard, and it’ll take time and money. We’ve been able to do a few things, like the Get Tucked Up TV series with Rochelle and Fifi and Vonnie, and Queens of the Kitchen, which we’re hoping to do another series of. And there’s a lot more live singing now. I think that’s where it’s going if it’s going to survive. And you need really supportive venues like the Mars Bar. And most of all, you need young people who still compliment you, even at my age, and now that Rochelle no longer fits into standard sized costumes! And I have the photos to prove it.”

And in another twenty five years? “Well, Rouge is eighty and she’s still got a spring in her step,” Richard says with a grin, “that’s really something to aspire to.”